Translation of Two Novels by Contemporary Puerto Rican Author Edgardo Rodriguez Julia

FAIN: HB-50356-13

Christopher Powers
University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez (Mayaguez, PR 00680-6475)

As an academic researcher in the field of comparative literature, experienced in multi-lingual research in world literatures, I intend to translate two novels by a great Caribbean and Latin American author, Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá, the most critical and consistently innovative living literary writer from Puerto Rico. The Spirit of the Light is a formally experimental, historical novel with a pan-Caribbean, cosmopolitan perspective written in multiple voices that record the experiences of four artists in their attempt to capture the enigmatic light of the Caribbean. The Woman in the Panama Hat, written in a style similar to the noir detective novel, is a portrait of social classes in Puerto Rico with a postmodern edge. My project will enable these great works to be appreciated as cultural ambassadorship and for their broad import for the humanities as such. The translations will be disseminated through their publication by university and/or literary presses.